


The Professor and the Busybody

by electroniccollectiondonut



Series: The Warlock and the Chosen One [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Merlin (TV)
Genre: (for harry potter), (for merlin), Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23404327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electroniccollectiondonut/pseuds/electroniccollectiondonut
Summary: In December of 1926, Merlin feels a disturbance in the magic of the world and moves to Great Britain to keep an eye on it. In August of 1992, Professor Binns realizes he's a ghost and moves on to the afterlife. These are unrelated events, but they pave the way for legends to come to life and fates to change.
Series: The Warlock and the Chosen One [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683598
Comments: 11
Kudos: 37





	The Professor and the Busybody

Merlin sat cross-legged on the dirt floor in a little house on a fjord in New Zealand, the same wood walled, thatched roofed house he’d been magically transporting around the world since he built it in 647, books that were worth more than anything he’d ever owned in his some fifteen centuries of living scattered carelessly on the ground around him. It was New Year’s Eve of 1926, though the part of him that still lived in Camelot would always cite Samhain as the beginning of the New Year.

Most of the books were open to entries about sea serpents, though one of the more modern books was on the handling of dangerous magical creatures and another was an account he’d transcribed by hand from a wizard who claimed to have been attacked in cold blood by the serpent. Claimed being the key word, because Merlin was of the mind that the serpent was just territorial, as literally any other animal in existence could be.

He’d been looking into local mythology for a good month now, because that was always a good place to start, and he felt reasonably certain that what he was looking for was a taniwha, which didn’t really help as not much was known about them yet. He took one last look at his notes, then closed the books. He took off his shoes and socks and jacket and bright red bow tie, which he would have on even if he hadn’t gone out today, so that they wouldn’t get wet when he jumped into the fjord to find the taniwha.

He was reading his notes one last time for good measure when he felt the Balance of the Old Religion shiver around him like it hadn’t done in… decades, at least. Merlin dropped the pages he was holding on the floor and ran outside. It was the middle of the night. The waves were frothing dangerously at his feet, and even though he’d very intentionally placed his house above the high tide mark (he didn’t want another incident like when he was in the Low Countries in 1287, thank you very much), he didn’t notice the cold water breaking over him much higher than it should, soaking his pants to the knees. Nor did he notice the sharp volcanic rocks poking his bare feet, because all his attention was directed to the sky.

The aurora australis, no matter what kind of magic affected things, should not be present at this time of year. But present they were, casting a sickly green glow over the less than tranquil night as they writhed into the shape of a snake. Dread, cold and heavy, settled in Merlin’s stomach, and a magical wind swirled around him and his house as he closed his eyes and searched for what had caused the disturbance.

There.

London.

There was a dark presence in London, and as the wind lifted him and the house away from the ground, he had the presence of mind to think,  _ Not too close!  _ He didn’t want to drop himself in the middle of a dangerous situation.

All the notes and trinkets he’d collected throughout the centuries clattered around in the house behind him, and he thought a little guiltily of the taniwha, then decided that it would eventually resolve itself or, if not, someone else could deal with it. The world, bathed in a green light that he could see through his eyelids and chilled by the conjured gale, stilled, and all his senses slipped out of focus for the barest of instants.

Merlin felt the snow under his feet before he opened his eyes, and he danced back into the open doorway with an undignified yelp. A flash of gold eyes and his belongings set themselves back to their usual organized chaos, then he looked out, trying to get an idea where in the British Isles he was.

Looking out over the stretch of rocky coast his house had settled on, a cave just a short few hundred feet over and a cliff drop down and various little ruins making oddly shaped piles of snow dotting the hills, and feeling the familiar magic that practically bled from the place, he could have almost laughed if it didn’t hurt so much.

Of course he would end up here.

**Author's Note:**

> Can anyone guess where Merlin is? (Hint: it's one of the more oft-cited locations for Camelot.)


End file.
